Currency

This subtheme contains clips and stills from the My Place TV series, teaching activities and associated student activity sheets. You will find activities that provide evidence of the use of currency and the price of goods and services in different eras.

Themes:

Minna and some of her friends play the game 'Bloody Mary' and scare each other with stories about what she is like. After Minna breaks their mirror, she decides to give the neighbourhood boys a fright by crawling under their house and making strange noises.

After foraging in the forest for plover's eggs, Ben competes with Leck to sell them to the local populace. He then gets into trouble with his father after he repeats an ugly stereotype about Chinese people that he learnt from Mr Wilson.

Alice is training her piglet Wilhelmina for the pig race but is unable to convince any of the local workers to bet any money on her. Freddie the bookie is concerned at the thought of losing money as most of the locals have bet on Oink, the favourite.

Michaelis's father and friends are celebrating the birth of the baby in a traditional Greek way. The boys next door, who had bullied Michaelis and called him a 'wog', apologise and pay him a penny to replace his lost ice-cream. Janice shows her affection for Michaelis.

Freddie tells Alice about his forging history while they paint a piglet black. They then switch it with George's piglet Benny in order to fix the race. When Alice awakes she's shocked to find there is something wrong with Wilhelmina.

The Shadow is a famous a comic character, popular at this time with children. The character and his adventures were made into a radio play, which was broadcast as a serial each week. Colum and Thommo are calculating how much they need to win on the Melbourne Cup to guarantee that Thommo's family will not be evicted from their home.

Bertie is trying to pay off the last shilling owing on his present for his brother Eddie who is returning home after serving in the First World War. Mr Watson, the store owner, will not advance him a loan. Bertie goes to the repatriation hospital to bring his mother (a nurse) fresh goat's milk, and shares jokes with his friends Sid and Mr Bracey who are both returned soldiers.

Evelyn, Edward and Freddie try to replace the fireworks. They visit Mr Wong's emporium to buy a replacement box but find they can't afford it. They then try to obtain some gunpowder in an attempt to make their own fireworks.

Rowley and Tom Müller visit Mr Merry when he is convening a meeting of the newly formed Labor Party. They are discussing the development of a new brickworks and are concerned with protecting the rights, health and safety of workers. Rowley and his mother discuss Rowley's father and his employment at the brickworks.